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Saturday, July 7, 2007

Live Earth Concert

By Kara CallawayWithin the first few minutes of entering the CODEPINK house, I began to realize how much action this organization creates. By my fourth hour in the house, I was camping out in front of the Smithsonian's Native American museum to secure a spot for CODEPINK at the Live Earth concert put on by Al Gore. I camped out for 11 hours with two other CODEPINK activists to ensure that the organization was loud and present at this event. What I didn't realize, and found very interesting/outrageous was the animosity towards CODEPINK from the police. Not only did they corral us into a corner on the side of the crowd so we wouldn't be seen on camera, but they continued to push us back until we were so cramped together that we were stepping on each other and our neighbors! With plenty of room in front of us, the police pushed us into an inhumanely compact space! The discrimination and abuse of power was overtly obvious and it made me sick. We were in line longer than anyone and our message was positive and 100% pro-Gore; the only reason for hiding us from the camera was to anger us. This incident showed me first-hand how corrupt police can be and why so many CODEPINK activists are willing to go to jail to fight the system.

3 comments:

Ryan from Richmond
said...

Despite the harsh treatment, I was proud to see CODEPINKERS on the web broadcast. There were a couple of full screen shots and at one point I could hear the chant "No War, No Warming!" Nicely done. I am happy to be part of such a fantastic organization of the loud and proud.

In another concert note, Melissa Etheridge gave a very moving peace oriented performance with her song "Imagine that" with additional commentary in opposition to the war. Love her!

Also, Macy Gray and her band were decked out in peace symbols and anti-war gear. The guitarists had shirts with big x's across Bush and Cheneys' names and the back up singers had messages written on their dresses like "War is not the answer." At the end of their performance, they sang Macy's version of "Give Peace a Chance." It was awesome. If you haven't seen either Melissa's (NY) or Macy's (Brazil) performance they are still available on the web, just type in Live Earth in your browser window and navigate through the site to the concert footage. Well worth your time.

The Live Earth scene was pretty cool. It was excellent to ride the pedicab all the way down the line of people and find the Pink Ladies at the front of the line!!! Code Pink is not just everywhere. Code Pink is EVERYWHERE FIRST!!Great job Kara!! See you tomorrow!!